if there was not a certain market for the redundancy of fpun yarn over what we are able to weave, the fpinners would be difcouraged, by the apprehenfion of no fale for their yarn, and, in the next year, the weavers might not have enough for their demand-and this principle holds in every manufacture. As to the coarse woollens what makes it unlikely that we can rival England in them, is that in them the raw material is a great proportion of their value; and the wool of Ireland is worfe confiderably than that of England, and dearer in price, in the proportion of 10d. to 6d. per pound, as pofitively affirmed by the English manufacturers in 1785. Of course, when our prosperity raises the price of labour, we can never expect to rival England in this article.

"With respect to thofe articles which make part of our linen manufacture, as printed linens, mixed cottons, &c. &c. if England was to lay afide, or equalize, all duties upon them, and the woolens, would we have any right to demand that the fhould continue the present bounty on the export of our linens, which was given us as a compenfation for the exclufion of our woolens, and which, certain ly, is a difcouragement to her own linen manufacture, and particularly to that of Scotland? Our linen trade, as it stands at present, and encouraged by this bounty, is fufficient to employ the capital of the richest, and reward the fpeculation of the most adventurous trader, without contending, as we must do, in the other line of printed and cotton goods, with the power and opulence of Manchester, and the skillful establishment, capital, and machinery of the English artists. These manufactures are old, and firmly rooted in England. With us they are but in their infancy; and if all duties upon them were mutually taken off in England and Ireland, it would be the total deftruction of all thofe branches of infant and unfettled manufacture, that would have to contend, on equal terms, with the old establish éd ones of fimilar articles in Britain; and of thefe, none would engage in a more difadvantageous combat than the printed linens, cot

tons, &c. This is proved by the testimony of the English Merchants themfelves, who, when they were examined before the Lords of the Committee of Council, in 1785, on the Commercial Propofitions, then depending between England and Ireland, did confefs, that they had no apprehenfion of Ireland underfelling them in their own market, in fine or coarfe woollens, printed linens, or mixed goods, iron ware, or earthen ware, provided they were fubject to equal duties, on import into England,with thofe then payable on import of fimilar articles into Ireland, and an equal duty on import of raw import of raw materials-as iron, cotton, &c. into either country.The striking off all duties in both countries was much difapproved of by the Lords of the Committee of Council, and the fyftem preferred was to diminifh all duties then in existence to the ftandard of the country where they were loweft; and this must be the idea of any commercial arrangement between the two countries in cafe of an Union; and as the rates now stand this would leave a protecting duty of about ro per cent. in general, befides infurance, freight, commiffion, &c. to all those English articles, we might hope to contend with them in, fuch as printed linens, mixed cottons, hard-ware, earthenware, &c. which the English Merchants, faid, in 1785, would be sufficient to prevent a competition of the Irish Merchant in their own market.

"If, therefore, an Union is likely to do us little benefit to our export trade, fee what injury must certainly refult from it to our import. Indeed the Merchants begin to feel, that a great part of their trade in imported articles, for our home confumption, might ceafe, in confequence of the vaft diminution of the numbers of our home confumers, which an Union in any poffible fhape, muft neceffarily create, by' encreafing the number of Abfentees, almoft beyond calculation, and it must always be remembered, that there is no nation in the world, where the gentry, or higher orders, fo exclufively confume all the imported articles; and where the members of the differ

ent branches of the Legislature, are fo great a proportion of the Gentry, as in Ireland, and there is no country, therefore, in which the removal of her Legislature will take with it fo great a number of the confumers of imported articles. The misfortune which the increafe of Abfentees will overwhelm all parts of this country with, is a matter of the deepest concern, and carries with it irrefiftable arguments againft an Union, on this, however, we will talk fome other time I now only allude to the effects it will have on her commerce, and how feverely it will be felt, by all our importing Merchants,

in the first instance.

As to the fmall taxes we pay, and the cheapnefs of labour, enabling us to vie with England in her own market, in certain of her articles of cftablished manufacture; he continued, Tho' at prefent our taxes are moderate, yet an Union would probably, in the first inftance, and certainly in courfe of time, caufe them to be put on the fame footing with thofe of England; in the fame examination of the English Merchants, in 1785, they faid that one great

My partner stopped, and I own I had no reply ready, and I was mortified at it; on which he proceeded, "I affure you this is my fincerc opinion, and in point of the further extenfion of the privileges of commerce, England has now nothing to give, which in our fituation, and with our produce we can take much benefit from, and which would make atonement to this country, for any furrender of importance. I begin to think that the advocates for an Union, will not infift that much benefit will refult from it, to our trade, and will fhift their arguments (tho' with more fallacy, as I fhalt fhew you fome other time) to the advantages we may derive from it, in point of protection and

"As to the cheapnefs of labour, it is true that the commonest kind of day labour, merely agricultural, is cheaper here; but the prices of all fuperior artists, are equal, and in fome inftances, higher-for skilful workmen in the difficult branches, are rarely to be found here-and must be brought from England. So that they have not only English wages, but the great expence of their removal, and establishment. But fuppofe actual labour be cheaper here than in England, and may poffibly continue fo, furely, however, the want of kill in the manufacturer, the habitual drunkennefs, facility of intoxication, and unfettled manners of our peo

quate to more than its capital, but that capital is rapidly encreasing, capable of great extenhon, and employed upon the best subjects of our produce and manufacture, and the nation bas thriven accordingly."

My Partner now ceafed to fpeak, I said I would think of it, and I have given it much thought, and the more I confider it, the more I believe him in the right. I fend you this, in hopes you will publish it in your useful and patriotic may be paper, as there many men in my fituation, in Cork, Limerick, Belfast, and other great trading towns, who may not be lucky enough, to have a partner with equal knowledge-and who may be thereby tempted to wish for an Union, in hopes of commercial benefits, it never can bring with it.

A MERCHANT.

PRICE 2D.

No. VI.

TO THE

LORDS AND COMMONS

OF

Ireland.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

cal equality, between Proteftant and Catholic, muft produce a Revolution. To the Catholic he tells, that "an opening may be left in any "plan of a Union, for the future admiffion of "Catholics to additional privileges," that is, to that very privilege, which, in his eftimation, muft produce a Revolution! With ungrateful petulance, he vents his abufe upon the character and manners of the People of Ireland, collectively, and upon every clafs of them in particular, until his audacity, attained its

country, I addrefs you with that reverence, which a conftitutional mind ought to feel, but with a confidence which the great occafion demands, and with which I am infpired, as a fub ject of a Constitution yet free; a Conftitution, for the prefervation of which, you stand in the proud character of Trustees for this nation. The Cabinet of England, and the Govern ment of Ireland, have determined on the introduction of the queftion of an UNION, in the next Seflion of Parliament, at a time, and in fuch a temper of the People, as that it will, I fear, fhake to its centre, the tranquillity of the kingdom and as if infult and irritation were neceffary preparatives for a question, too well calculated, by its own nature, to wound the fenfibility, and to route the paffions of the nation, an Englishman, in office here, without head or heart, who mistakes prating, for reafoning, and fcribbling, for writing, has published, under Patronage, a Pamphlet, and a Letter, in which fcarcely any thing appears, but examples without illuftration, analogies withoutfimilitude, affumptions innumerable, ignorance of hiftorical facts, which he affects to know, and an impudence provoking and incorrigible: This Gentleman, wafted into Ireland

QUO PRUNA ET COCTONA VENTO." tells the Proteftant, that a Union will effc&tually fecure his political fuperiority over the Catholic-that the admiffion of the latter to a feat in Parliament, and for that purpofe. the neceffary repeal of the Teft-Oaths, and the Act of Supremacy and Uniformity, would amount to an acquiefeence in the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction of the Pope in this realm, and that politi

invectives, upon our national Parliament, which he wishes to annihilate. He tells you, my Lords and Gentlemen, in very plain language,, that you are not, in fact, the independent Le-. giflators of Ireland, but the machines of England; and that you betray the facred truft repofed in you by your country, by becoming the inftruments of the British Cabinet; from the bafest and vileft of all poffible motives. In his Pamphlet, page 12, he fays, "The counfels "for the Government of Ireland, are framed in "the British Cabinet: the Government of Ire"land is actually adminiftered by a British Lord "Lieutenant, who diftributes the Patronage of "the Crown: the Irish Parliament is fuppofed

to be in a great degree fubject to British Influ-. ence." And he preferibes his Union as the only remedy for his falfely alledged degradation of the tifh Legiflature, and tell the People of Ireland, that their Lords and Commons, are fo irrecoverably funk into political profligacy and bafenefs, that there is no hope of relief, but by extinguishing their feparate existence, and by fending a few Lords and Commoners into the British Parliament, under the nearer influence of that Cabinet, which this reviler of our national character, reprefents as the labora tory in which your fenatorial flavery is analyfed and compounded --And all this from a perfon, who, a few months ago, would have filled the gaols and the gibbets with fuch Irish Barbarians, as fhould venture to fpeak the tenth part of what he ventures to write: That vehicle of fecition, called THE PRESS, its hotteit career of virulence, never ventured to utter against our. Parliament, a calumny fo foul or fo grofs, as that which is now written against it by this He rald of Proftitution; and if i had not been up

been_up

prized that this extraordinary production had come from an official hand, I should have miftaken it for the work of a confpirator, who had renewed his efforts to rekindle the flame of religious animosity and murder, and to juftify the enormities of the Irish Directory: In one place he fays, that after the Union" there will be no clashing of diftin&t interefts" between the two nations: and in another, "that "the interests of England must ever preponde"rate," and "that a preference will always be "given to her." Well done! thou honeft Statefman! Thou deep, confiflent, political reafoner! In his Letter in the D. Ev. Poft, of the 11th of December laft, in which he ufurps the name of a CONSTITUTIONALIST, he dreffes up a queftion, compofed of affumptions, to his own tafte, and then gravely answers it himself, after which he boldly infifts that you have, by the Conftitution, an authority to form a Union with the British Legiflature,, independént. of the confent of the People of Ireland: And tho' without a Union, we certainly have our feparate and independent Houfes cf Lords and Commons, and if a Union fhould take place, we would have neither the one or the other, yet this ftunted grammarian, with a verbal trifling, commenfurate to his intelle&t, infifts that the formation of a Union, which must give away from Ireland the feparate and independent exiftence of her two Houfes of Parliament, is not a transfer of either! He undertakes to demonftrate your authority, independent of the People, by faying, that Lord Somers, a great Law yer and Statefman, drew up the Bill of Rights, and the Articles of the Scotch Union; and he concludes his demonftration, by configning his adverfary to his ignorance of Lord Somers, and marches off triumphantly, hooting at (what he calls) technical logic, and ideal fhadows. The prominent feature of this Gentleman's political character, appears to be incurable arrogance; yet it is aftonishing, that he thould have imagined that the established rights, the understanding, and the fpirit, of a free people, could be fcribbled away, amidit the jejune trash of any little minifter, or any little man, who thinks. himfelf a minifter. I quit this gentleman for a while, to come to the main object of my addrefs to you; and I lay it down as an irrefragable pofition, that the Constitution of Ireland is the indifputable property of the nation, and not of its Parliament. You, my Lords, acting your part in one great branch of this Conftitution, form the dignified ftay between the King and the People, in all matters of a legislative nature : You are alfo invefted with the fupreme judicial authority in all caufes involving the.

life, liberty and property, of the fubject. No enlightened man has ever yet afferted that this tranfcendent power has been committed to you by the Conftitution, for your own exclufive beneft; or that thereby that branch of the Conftitution which you thus occupy, was to become your abfolute property, to be difpofed of as you may pleafe, without the exprefs and fpecial confent of the nation which firft made the Conftitution, and then appointed the feveral bodies of the Parliament, to act their diftin& parts on the diftinct branches of it: You are in fact, my Lords, but Trustees in your Parliamentary capacity, and therefore anfwerable to your country for the property of the people thus committed to your care, the feparare existence of which, you have no right to confent to deftroy, or transfer, without their fpecial authority for that purpofe. As to you, Gentlemen, who more peculiarly reprefent the People of Ireland in their feparate and independent Commons' Houfe of Parliament, I do, in the name of my country, folemnly enter my proteft against even a colour of authority vefted in you, to give up, extinguith, or transfer, your feparate and independent cxiftence as a branch of our legiflature, without the fpecial and exprefs-direction of your Conftituents, from whom along you derive your Parliamentary existence: When you were elected, the term of your delegation was clearly defined by the fettled law of the land: Now, Gentlemen, let me intreat you to lay your hands upon your hearts, and fay, whether at the time when your Conftituent was giving his vote for your election, it ever entered into the mind of any honourable mem-, ber among you, that he committed, or intended to commit, to you, not only the facred truft of making laws for him, during the defined term of your delegation, but also full authority to deftroy for ever, that feparate and independent branch of Ireland's Conftitution, into which he was fending you to act for his benefit? The very idea outrages every principle of Conftitution, common juftice, and common fenfe. Let me fuppofe the Union formed without the fpecial confent I have mentioned: The Act which compleats the Union, muft bring on a diffolution of the Irish Parliament, and fend you back upon a political level with your fellow-fubjects: Suppofe a Conftituent fhould addrefs one of you in these terms :

"Sir, you folicited my vote for your election to reprefent me in the feparate and independent Commons of Ireland. You promifed a faithful difcharge of the truft, and you became the object of my confidence. During the term

defined by law. I entrusted to you the ftupendous power to concur in making laws affecting every thing dear to the heart of man. The term of your delegation is determined, and I demand from your hands that feparate independent branch of the constitution which I committed to your care as my trustee, in order that I may again exercife my birth-right, and choose another perfon in your ftead."

Can there be one Irishman among you of fuch callofity of confcience, fo dead to all fenfe of fhame, as to be able to meet the indignant cye of his betrayed conftituent, conscious that he had confented to the utter extinction of the fubject matter of his truft? There never was, and I hope there never will be, one Irifh member in your honourable affembly mifereant enough, to put himself into a fituation to be fo queftioned by his conftituents. May the manly anfwer of J. C. Beresford to the Guild of St. Loy, never be forgotten by my fellow-citizens of Dublin.

I have, my Lords and Gentlemen, denied, as I ever fhall deny, your authority, as members of our Parliament, to confent to the deftruction of the feparate and independent exiftence of the two great branches of the conftitution, which you fill, without the confent of the majority of the people of Ireland. By this I do not mean to infinuate any diftruft of your integrity; but, I am fure, that the Parliament of a free country cannot be difpleafed at the anxiety of an Irishman trembling for the peace and the fate of his country, if, upon a queftion of fuch incalculable value to millions yet unborn, he rests his chief dependance upon the unchangeable point of conftitutional right. I have endeavoured to prove your want of the authority, upon the principles of the conftitution, and of common juftice, to bring about fuch a revolution-I fay, a revolution; becaufe, if the mere removal of the crown of England from one branch of the fame family to another, ftill preferving the three great branches of the constitution unimpaired, be a revolution, furely, it is much more fo, to annihilate the feparate existence of the Lords and Commons of Ireland. But, if my own ftrength be too faint for the purpofe, permit me to fupply the defect from the highest authority. In the feflion of 1716, the famous feptennial bill paffed the Lords, and was fent down to the Commons of England. In the fpeech of Sir Robert Raymond, afterwards Lord Raymond, and Chief Juftice of England, upon the fubjc&t of that bill, you will find the following remarkable paffages :

"Sorry thould I be to fuppofe, we had any allies who refufed to treat with us, because we refufed to relinquifb our conftitution. Will not the people fay, with reafon, if this bill shall pafs, that, when the original term of your de legation is elapfed, you are no longer their reprefentatives. In my opinion, the King, Lords, and Commons, can no more continue a Parliament beyond its natural duration, than they can make a Parliament." Here, then, we have the opinion of a great English lawyer, that Parliament had no power to extend the duration of the truft committed to them-that the exercife of fuch a power would be a relinquishment of the conftitution-that the members of the Houfe of Commons would not, during the additional term, be the reprefentatives of the people and, that the three eftates of the conftitution had no power to extend the term of delegation one day longer than was fettled and defined by law, at the time when the delegation was made. I cannot prefume to affront your understandings, or your feelings, by afking, what, you think, would have been the opinion of that great conftitutional lawyer, if he were queftioned as to the power of the King, Lords, and Commons, to extinguish,' for ever, the feparate and independent legislative authority of the Lords and Commons of Great Britain? And yet our Englifh pamphleteer has the matchlefs effrontery to tell the people of Ireland, that the meditated Union, which is to have precifely the fame effect upon the Lords and Commons of Ireland, is a change only in the form, but not in the effence of the conftitution1

I am extremely unwilling to impute wicked intentions to any man; but I cannot help obferving, that the lucubrations of this gentleman, and of his auxiliaries, in the task of promoting an Union, feem to manifest a selection of topics calculated to fink the fpirit, and to degrade the character of the nation, and to make the people look with horror and difguft upon thofe eftablishments and orders in fcciety, which they have been always accustomed to regard with veneration and love. The eye of the public has been ever lifted towards the auguft affembly in our Houfe of Lords with profound refpect. The Commons of Ireland, as emanating immediately from the people, have been uniformly the objects of our respect, mixed with ftrong emotions of fentibility and affection. Of late, in particular, every loyal heart in the nation glowed with confidence in, and gratitude to, both our Houfes of Parlia-. ment, by whofe over-awing prefence, vigi